On Christmas Eve 2024 I ran Old School Essentials for my mom (Donna) and a couple of her friends (John and Natalie), as well as my oldest brother and sister-in-law (Garrett and Marina). This was the second year we played together, I suppose it’s become somewhat of a tradition now. This post is largely a play report with splices of self-examination in regards to using the steps laid out in Building a Binder.

In the days leading up to the game session I begin preliminary prep by filling a pencil case with miniatures, dice, color crayons for mapping, notecards and of course, pencils. Choosing miniatures helped to generate ideas for the structure of the adventure (I find there is a lot of value with improvising with toys and would like to expand on this in another post). The book I was near to finishing, Tehanu by Ursula K LeGuin, guided my ideas as well. We used the pregenerated characters from Rogues Gallery for last year’s session, so I printed them out again. Luckily, each player more less remembered their character from the previous session..

• Donna: Blaine the cleric.

• John: Cherry the h*bbit.

• Natalie: Swan the elf.

• Garrett: Dregg the thief.

• Marina: Bran the fighter.

The morning of the session, Christmas Eve, working in a coffee shop in downtown Beloit, Wisconsin, I wrote for a couple hours, sketching out the ideas that had been jumbling in my head the past few days and laying out the basic beats of the adventure I wanted to hit. A basic sense of direction was needed in terms of dungeon crawling, so I drew rudimentary maps for scale and orientation. I level up the characters from 1 to 2, making minor adjustments on their sheets. Lastly, I gave thought to the main NPCs they would encounter, jotting down some characteristics and how they might speak. All of this was written on one page for easy reference.

[This is all you need. Notes and sketches on grid paper laying out the basics of an adventure.]

I leave to finish some Christmas shopping, then walk home to take a two hour nap. Afterwards I do the final bits of my prep, organizing the player sheets, dice sets and pencils along with notecards. Before the game, we enjoy a meal of shrimp, coulibiac, pulled pork and finger foods, eating at a leisurely pace. After dinner the table is cleared and I set up for the session, laying out all the player materials. On each character sheet is placed a respective second level hit die along with a toy miniature to represent their character. I begin with a brief recap on basic rules found on character sheets along with giving the general expectation that I’d like everyone to cooperate and get along. Yet I wasn’t worried about problem players. Everyone rolls their second level hit die into a new HP total. I queue my Morrowind music and begin the session.

In the hills of h*bbit country the party stands at the outskirts of the sleepy village, Bumsqueek, staring at the notice board. We take a moment to go around the table and introduce our characters to each other as a refresher for all. The Rogues Gallery features a good amount of character background and each player drew from these when roleplaying during the session, having it drive their basic motivations alongside cold hard coin. During these introductions I write down important bits to each of their backgrounds to tie into the adventure later in the session.

The party spots a notice for a missing person: Karey Scorpio, the village witch. They make their way to lazy Sheriff Duval, finding him already drunk in the early afternoon. Negotiating for a higher price (from 1000 coins to 1500), they use the direness of the situation and his intoxication to their advantage. Without the local witch present, villagers had no one to soothe their sour tummies or set broken bones. Sheriff Duval divulged all relevant information he had to the case:

• Karey lived in a hut on the outskirts of town.

• She has been missing for a week now.

• The last person she spoke to was the village elder, Barry.

• Karey had no enemies. Yet, butting up against her domain was the foul wizard, Nezzlebub, who made servants from the unliving.

The party decides to speak with the village elder next, meeting the kindly old h*bbit on his porch to discuss Karey’s disappearance. There they discovered some key facts:

• Karey had spoken to the Elder Barry two weeks ago asking about Nezzlebub’s tower. Elder Barry told her that guarding the tower’s entrance is a foul undead champion to the wizard.

• He told her about a secret passage to the backside of the tower, a cave the Elder Barry and his friends crawled through as youths to reach a secret swimming spot. The cave is now occupied by a nest of venomous centipedes.

• Karey’s hut remains unoccupied since her disappearance. The Elder Barry grants the party full permission to examine the hut in hopes of finding further clues.

With the hours drawing close to dusk, the party decided to investigate Karey’s hut before hitting up the village inn. Outside the dilapidated hut chickens peck in the yard, a nearby oak tree carved with witching words. Inside the single room hovel is festooned with witchy accouterments: jars of pickled newts, vials of potions, fragrant herbs bundled and hung from the rafters to dry. A strange collection of holy symbols included one to the god of Blaine, Klath-Karnath, the goddess of insane danger. Swan the elf taps the walls in search for secret doors, but instead discovers an alcove tucked behind a hide curtain. The tiny space contains a small bed, straw toys, and a half finished red child’s dress. Next to the bed is a fragrant balm for soothing burns, identified by the thief, Dregg. Examining the alchemy table shows that Karey was creating antivenom from a vial of centipede venom. Searching her belongings they find a portion of her supplies had been taken, and a sword missing from her mantle piece, its silhouette remaining on the soot stained wall. At this point the party has gathered several more clues.

• A child seemed to be under Karey’s care, but no one they spoke to ever made mention of this.

• She left on her own accord, preparing for a journey and expecting to be gone for sometime.

• She was told about the centipede caves from Elder Barry and so prepared for encountering danger along the way, taking with her a sword, antivenom and perhaps some holy symbols.

The entire investigation was done without rolling a single die. Players asked questions and interacted with the space, forming their own conclusions from the facts I told them. Their characters’ backgrounds each brought a separate outlook into their investigation; the cleric recognizing holy symbols, the elf searching for secrets, the thief’s knowledge in balms and poisons. Everyone was simply playing. How splendid.

As dusk approaches the party makes their way to the village inn, Conner’s Hole (a name I had to make up on the spot). The peat smokey inn bustles with farmers and craftsmen unwinding from the day’s labor. Everything being h*bbit sized, only Cherry finds himself fitting snugly in with the decor. The rest of the party is ushered to the unkempt and dusty “tallfolk” section meant for smelly adventurers to be largely ignored. At the bar they get the attention of the busy innkeeper, Melinda, an overworked and over-tempered h*bbit with a twitchy eye. She brusquely answers their questions, but the party looks elsewhere, pointing out individuals around the lively inn to speak with.

One player moved from interview to interview but pointing her finger and saying “Look at that man over there, he looks interesting! Let’s ask him.” to which I would pull a character out of my repertoire of country bumpkins to speak to. After a few of these transitions, I began to play characters more loosely. For their investigation players asked me questions plainly while I briefly played a rotating cast of interviewees. They found Karey to be generally well spoken of by the villagers and even admired. A mousey h*bbit finally tells them how she saw Karey walking down the side road in the dead of night just over a week ago, cloaked for travel with her walking stick. The very same road led to the tower of the foul wizard Nezzlebub. The party now had the following clues:

• Despite seemingly housing a child, none of the villagers they asked ever saw her with a child or ever heard her mention a child before.

• Adventurers pass through town often so strangers are not uncommon. Yet one night a foul smelling band of cloaked figures shuffled around the village outskirts.

• Karey was definitively last seen leaving the village in secrecy at night in the direction of Nezzlebub’s tower one week ago.

• It was evident that without Karey the village would be worse off, having been a healer to many blundering village bumpkins.

With the following info, the party talks amongst themselves whether they should rest for the night or set out immediately. Given the facts and the clear danger Karey faced, the party elected to leave at night in case she found herself in dire trouble. Lighting their torches and lanterns as the sun begins to set under the green hills, the party makes their way down the side road leading to Nezzlebub’s tower.

“You should probably sober up” - Swan.

“I don’t need to.” - Bran.

Traveling an hour in the darkness the party came around a road bend to discover an orc, lizardman and gnoll quarreling. The trio were debating cutting their losses and running. The party decides to hail the trio, asking what troubles them. Greer the orc, Pacino the lizardman, and Triplehorn the gnoll explained how their compatriot, Niro the goblin mage, had gone missing after sneaking into Nezzlebub’s tower to steal wizardly secrets. That was three weeks, and so they ventured to seek him out. At the rickety bridge across the chasm leading to the Nezzlebub’s tower they encountered the Befouled Champion. Their bugbear compatriot, Kietel, was felled in a single swoop, and so they fled. The player party decides to take on the trio as hirelings, coming to the conclusion their goals align. They negotiate a split in the loot of treasure plundered from the tower (60/40).

“Anything you find, put it in your pockets. They won’t know about it.” - Dregg.

“We are, afterall, bounty motivated.” - Cherry.

The party heads to the centipede caves as told by Elder Barry. They make their way through the cramped tunnels, taking turns to listen carefully down forking paths while quickly dispatching the hunting centipedes. They party gathers the treasure of slain adventurers, notating all loot on a note card. In a large chamber they came to pools of luminescent water dripping from crystalline stalagmites above. Greer the orc splashes water onto his face, instantly becoming beautiful. Only the cleric, Blaine, splashes water onto his face, also becoming beautiful. The water is in fact cursed, but both pass their save vs spell to avoid turning even more ugly after a turn countdown.

Feeling the draft of fresh air down the tunnel, they arrive at the mother centipede’s chamber. Her massive carapace curls around a squirming clutch of venomous centipedes. Dregg the thief leading the way, attempting to sneak past but missteps, revealing their presence to the nest. The party makes a quick escape, Bran the fighter cutting down swathes of centipedes in process. They hastily climb down the cave exit to a watery chasm far below the wizard’s tower. In the chasm is a pool of clear water fed by a stout waterfall; no doubt the secret swimming spot of the young Elder Barry and his childhood friends.

Deciding they deserve a quick respite, the party takes a few turns to rest. Swan, Cherry, Bran and Greer strip off their armor to swim, exploring behind the waterfall to find a secret chamber. Inside the chamber are piles of regurgitated bones. While Pacino swims carefreely in the pool, a giant blue viper springs its surprise attack. Its barrel-wide mouth narrowly misses Pacino who swims madly in the water avoiding its pursuit. Despite being caught by surprise, the party works quickly to lasso the giant viper. The warriors behind the waterfall dive through and into the water, stabbing at the great curling beast. Pacino casts his single Sleep spell onto the giant viper, meanwhile helpless the party slays it. Glittering at the pool’s bottom is a collection of semi precious gemstones added to the loot.

“Do you want to loot all the gems in the pool and snake pellets?” - Cherry.

“I’m religiously obliged to.” - Blaine.

Afterwards, they waste no time in regearing then ascending the secret stairwell to the tower’s cellar. At its end they find themselves in a dark mud room. The floor is soft stinking muck,their steps sinking into its fetid form. Finding the door forward locked, Dregg the thief makes quick work of the obstacle, but behind them rising from the mud appears a dozen zombies. The cleric, Blaine, reveals the holy symbol of Klath-Karnath he took from Karey’s hut, turning away the weakling zombies. With the undead fleeing they rush through the unlocked door and into the foyer of Nezzlebub’s tower.

It was at this point after checking in with the group that I decided to cut some content in order to progress forward. The group wanted to find out what the deal was with Karey and the child, so we decided on continuing for another hour or so before it came close to midnight that Christmas Eve.

In the foyer the party spots a stairwell spiraling upwards, the huge front double door, and another locked door bearing an accursed glowing sigil. Dregg works his thieving fingers again, opening the lock but branding his palm with the glowing sigil in the process. Inside is a sullen and dim room, a single jar placed on a stone pedestal houses an imp like creature. This creature implores the party to break the jar and free him, offering to become a weapon to their cause. Seeing as “why the hell not?” Dregg kicks over the jar. The imp laughs manically before the jar smashes onto the stone floor. His form transmutes into a wicked sword, flying into the branded hand of Dregg. After a battle of will against the sentient sword, Dregg claims it as his own, being told its name as given by the demon: “Spiteful”.

Ascending the steps the party found Nezzlebub within a large chamber controlling a set of levers to lower a dangling iron cage over a pool or purple sizzling goo. The distorted and stretch visages of ghostly mages swim upon the goo’s surface, bubbles burst open to release faint moans and cries. Trapped in the cage, Karey clings dear to a small figure, the child she harbored in her hut.

As Nezzlebub tauntingly lowers and raises the cage above the mage goo, he monologues how the liquified forms of lesser mages will power his leap into immortality. Yet totally unaware of the party, he commits to chewing the scenery as would any mad old wizard does. Saving a trick for such a moment, Swan casts the spell of Sleep, immediately lulling Nezzlebub into a gentle honk-shoo mi-mi-mi goodnight. This is not before his sleeping body falls onto a lever, causing the suspended cage to steadily drop towards the mage goo. The party springs into action, stopping the cage just as its bottom touches the swirling mess.

With Nezzlebub helpless, they smash the wizard’s head with a hammer and kick him into the goo. A burst of foul energy is released as his body dissolves. The party asks their many questions to Karey, but foremost “who is the child?”.

Karey tells how she took the child, Ember, half burned and half alive when she was abandoned on her doorstep. Karey worried that the villagers would see the child as a bad omen or cursling, such as they are a suspicious and loose lipped folk. She saw that clearly the child held great potential for magic, and so Karey took her as her ward, teaching her the basics of the witching arts. Nezzlebub smelled this power like a hound and sent for his unliving servants to capture the child while Karey was out performing healing duties. Resolving to retrieve the child she protected, Karey set out to assail Nezzlebub’s domain, having cut through the centipede caverns to avoid the Befouled Champion, but was captured by the zombies of the mudroom.

Returning to Bumsqueek together, the party splits the loot with their trio of hirlings (having found Niro made into mage goo) and bid farewell. Waving goodbye to Karey and Ember, the party leaves for a new adventure as the sun begins to rise over hills.

[The table at the session’s end. Dice, miniatures and crayons litter the grid side of wrapping paper.]

Content I cut due to time included some dastardly traps and a hazardous combat. I had planned a giant spider, a spymaster loyal to Nezzlebub, to act as a second right-hand henchman. Webs along the tower halls led to a main nest chamber where the giant spider spoke to its many children that crawled along the halls as its eyes. It was in this nest chamber that Niro the goblin mage was originally set to be discovered. Regardless, it’s now an idea saved for another day.

During bits of combat I would tell players the enemy’s AC. This sped combat along swimmingly. Besides a few digital treasure tables and stat blocks, I did not reference the book for rules. OSE shares the bones of B/X, a walking skeleton I’m safely familiar with. Easy to be game-y when you need it, and easy to have fun without procedures.

It’s a great pleasure to run games for people who don’t interact with table top role playing games at all. They engage in fiction without pretension and bring a grand curiosity to the table. I hope to run another session next year. I hope to have made clear some methods I followed in Building a Binder Part 1 to help facilitate this adventure.

Finally, I used the maps I drew on the grid side of wrapping paper for my Christmas presents. 🙂

[Nothing left to waste. Presents wrapped with the grid side of gift wrapping paper.]

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